Monday, 11 June 2012

The Coots nesting in the irises in the Italian Garden have hatched their first chick. There are seven eggs in the nest, so more should follow. This annual close-up show is always worth watching.

Meanwhile, the Coots in the net near the Lido ventured briefly out of their protective net. Baby Coots have an elderly, tatty look, but a certain charm nevertheless.

There were at least 500 geese on the north shore of the Serpentine, sitting and wandering around peacefully as the persistent rain had kept away visitors with their dogs. The Greylags chose the east side of the Bluebird Boats cabin ...

... and the Canadas took the west side.

Again, large numbers of Swifts were swooping over the lake to catch low-flying insects; there were also a couple of dozen House Martins. The rain encourages songbirds and there were some glorious recitals by Blackbirds and Song Thrushes.

The sad Mute Swan who sat on the path on the south side of the Serpentine, ignoring the passing crowds, seems to be recovering. He now stands up and comes over to be fed. During his long depression Malcolm used to come and feed him, and I have also been giving him biscuits from time to time. Today he was walking around and taking notice of the other swans.

About Me

I have been coming to the park for more than 60 years, and watching and feeding the birds. I am not an expert birder, but I know and love the park.
My main camera is a Pentax K-1 with a Pentax DFA 150-450mm zoom lens. At 7lb it is just light enough to carry for several hours. I also carry a Nikon Coolpix P900 for video and near shots where depth of field is required, and for very long shots where its enormous 83x zoom (equal to a 2000mm lens) is more important than a high-quality image.

This list is of all the birds, including rare visitors, that have been seen in the park since 1889. Sources include W.H. Hudson, 1898 (the naturalist in whose memory the Rima memorial was built); A.H. Macpherson, 1929; and various publications of the London Natural History Society (LNHS) from 1935 to 1993, with an appendix added by Roy Sanderson in 1995 to bring the total to 177 species. Since then it has been updated from LNHS bird reports, many of these from observations by Des McKenzie, who wrote the predecessor of this blog.